Short mappings for common tasks

Tip 979 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2005 · complexity basic · author Anon · version 7.0

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This tip presents suggestions for useful mappings. To qualify, each mapping should be short and should be useful for a common task. Other mappings belong in another tip.

This is a collection of unrelated mappings. You probably can't use all of them "as-is" at the same time. Assign your own left-hand-side as you see fit.

Copy

To copy text to the end-of-line, you can press y$ or you can use the following and press Y instead (consistent with the C and D operators, although you may prefer to have the default Y behavior of yanking the whole line):

nnoremap Y y$

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To copy an entire line, and paste it before the current line:

nnoremap _ ggY``P

Use a count to specify the line number (default is line 1). For example, 12_ would copy line 12 to before the current line.

Search

It's easier to press Space than / for searching:

nmap <Space> /
nmap <C-Space> ?

Highlight text on the screen matching that under the cursor: Press Ctrl-k to start; each subsequent Ctrl-l matches one more character. Uses marks "x" and "y", and register "z".

map <C-k> mx
map <C-l> lmy"zy`x/<C-r>z<CR>`y

Search for word under cursor with * or # in new window:

nmap <C-W>* <C-W>s*
nmap <C-W># <C-W>s#

Quickfix

" map <F3> and <S-F3> to jump between locations in a quickfix list, or
" differences if in window in diff mode
nnoremap <expr> <silent> <F3>   (&diff ? "]c" : ":cnext\<CR>")
nnoremap <expr> <silent> <S-F3> (&diff ? "[c" : ":cprev\<CR>")

Movement

" remap j and k to scroll by visual lines
nnoremap j gj
nnoremap k gk

Miscellaneous

nnoremap <Space> :